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BAAB title tourney set for 1st pitch

It seems just a few hours ago several dozen area baseball players stretched out their muscle kinks and worked on their glove skills during preseason practice for the Bartlesville Area Amateur Baseball 14-and-under league.

By the end of this week, the BAAB season should be wrapped up — but not without an exciting final chapter.

The BAAB championship tournament — which is scheduled to wrap up by Friday — is slated to start with a full slate of games tonight at the Price Complex. The Nowata Ironmen (11-3) are at the top of the seeding chart, followed by Treasures Jewelry (11-3) as the No. 2 seed.

The good news is everyone will still be alive after tonight in the double-elimination tourney. The $10 million question is which team will still have a heartbeat Friday.

“Sometimes it’s a surprise,” BAAB board president and Oilfield Pipe Supply head coach Mike Jackson said Sunday evening. “But, the top seed has the advantage through the tournament.”

Jackson — whose Oilfield team is seeded last (3-10-1) in the eight-team league — knows firsthand about the twist of fate that can make a pretzel of the seedings and predictions.

Four years ago, Jackson’s Oilfield team entered the tourney as one of the bottom seeds — and then proceeded to win it all, defeating Shirt Stop (coached by Jackson’s son K.C.) in the final.

“That was probably my most memorable one,” said Jackson, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the PONY/BAAB lead, as either a player or a coach.

The ‘X’ factor for unexpected results in the championship tourney is the ambiance and emotional energy generated by the event.

“It creates a whole new environment,” explained Jackson. “That brings a little more excitement and a little more focus to actual games. It also gives everybody an opportunity to show how they’ve improved.

“We know most players improve during the season and (at the tournament) we can see the improvement.”

Unlike some years — where there is a single team that turned in a truly superior showing during the regular season — two teams have to be considered this year as the pre-tourney big dogs.

Nowata and Treasures Jewelry boast identical records and competed with gritty determination during a meeting last week.

But, several other teams have the potential to bare their teeth and bit one of the top seeds.

Even the lower seed teams still have potential to rise to the occasion.

“The middle seeded teams are fairly even,” Jackson said. “There seems to be a lot of parity this year. Even the lower seeds have competed with the middle seeds pretty well.”

The tourney is slated to open at 6 p.m., at the BAAB Fields, located on the south end of the Price Complex.

On the North Field, No. 3 seed United Linen (7-7) will take on No. 6 Joe Land Carpet Cleaning (6-8), in the opener. On the South Field, meanwhile, No. 2 Treasures Jewelry (11-3) will face the No. 7 Masonic Lodge Warriors (4-10).

Tonight’s 8 p.m. games will pit No. 1 Nowata (11-3) against Oilfield Supply (3-10-1) on the South Field, and No. 4 ReMax (7-7) against No. 5 Todd Cone Law (6-7-1).

Tuesday’s schedule will feature two losers bracket showdowns and the winners bracket semifinals.

Wednesday is scheduled as an off/make-up day.

The tourney is set to resume Thursday, with the winners bracket final set for 8 p.m.

Thursday’s other three games will be losers bracket games.

On Friday, two 6 p.m. games are planned — the losers bracket final (with the winner advancing to the championship game) and a losers consolation final.

The tourney is set to wrap up with the 8 p.m. championship battle. There will be no ‘if’ game.

The team that can stay in the winners bracket has a definite advantage — due to pitching — Jackson noted.

The squad that comes back from the losers bracket will have had to play one or two extra games.

Last year’s tourney proved anything can happen.

Game Time and ReMax shared the Cinderella story by advancing to the final night.

But, it was top-seed Joe Land Carpet Cleaning that won it all — in unexpected fashion.

Game Time stunned No. 2 seed Masonic Lodge, 9-3, in the losers bracket semifinal to advance to the losers bracket championship.

Joe Land Carpet, meanwhile, also felt the fangs of upset the same night, falling to ReMax, 11-8.

ReMax then moved into the driver’s seat as it advanced to the final to await the winner of the losers bracket championship pitting Joe Land Carpet against upstart Game Time.

Joe Land Carpet defeated Game Time, 7-2, but had to turn around 20 minutes later and play a full-rested ReMax squad.

In what evolved into one of the most exciting-ever BAAB title scraps, Joe Land Carpet rallied in the final inning to win, 3-2.

Danny Warrick drove home the game-winner for Joe Land Carpet.

Jackson likely won’t be surprised by anything that might happen this week.

In addition to his underdog squad that won it all four years ago, he also recalled how his Oilfield team approximately a dozen years ago — when his son K.C. was a 14-year-old and member of the team — captured the league title.

A whole new carousel of memories will be made this week for the latest generation of BAAB warriors.

Despite Monday’s rains and forecasts of rain throughout the day, Jackson said the tourney has proven to be resilient during years of inclement weather.

Even during the massive flood of 2007, the BAAB officials managed to squeeze in the tourney final — in a break between rainstorms — a day-and-a-half before the deluge struck.

“I think we’ve been pretty fortunate,” Jackson said about the weather conditions the past few years. “With some of those hard rains, we can get cleaned up and ready to go pretty quickly. The ones that are hard are those that settle in and soak for a while.”

Make-up days are built into this week’s schedule.

In addition to the option of playing Wednesday, the tourney also could take place Saturday or extend into early next week.

But, the BAAB leadership can’t control the conditions — only deal with them.

What may happen in competition also is unpredictable.

That’s what has made the PONY/BAAB championship tourney a special Bartlesville tradition the past few decades.